I am thinking about buying one of these for my Dad. Not quite sure whether it will work for his need. The main advantage would be the OTA digital vs his current Analog. He would use it with a 4:3 TV via S-video.

He is most interested in sports for immediate playback or slightly time shfited. He uses his VCR for this now which has obvious limitations in today's digital world. He is almost 90 but I think he could get the hang of time shifting. I think he has had the same tape in the VCR for about three years.

I have a few basic questions which might help me understand if this would work for him:

1) Can you use the same DVD-RAM over and over for an "unlimited" time? Again no wish to save anything more than a few days (maybe a few hours).

2) Sounds like the limit for recording time is 2:00 MAXIMUM. Is this understanding correct? Football is longer than 2:00 hours but...he could still keep his VCR. WIth his TV low quality is fine.

3) Does closed captioning work on recorded/live OTA ?

I will also review the manual but a few practical answers from a user would be helpful.

You can select from any of the Recording Speeds (Modes) above but most people will tell you to not use anything above the 4 Hour Mode & I agree.

The Panny's also have a "Flexible Recording" Mode which lets you select the time that you want the recording to be which is really handy if you want to record a 2 Hour & 20 Minute Movie because the SP 2 Hour Mode is not long enough & the 4 Hour Mode is going to leave you with a lot of leftover space on the disc & it will be at the lower picture quality so instead you can enter the 2 Hours & 20 Minutes in the "Flexible Recording" Mode & you end up with the DVD filled up & recorded at the Best Possible Picture Quality.

All of the Recording Modes including "Flexible Recording" can also be used with "Timer Recordings" & they are pretty much entered just like you would enter them on a VCR.

The other thing I would add is that a few years back I gave my daughter a Panny DVD Recorder & it din't take her very long to figure it out so I would say if he can operate a VCR he won't have a hard time learning to use the Panny & in fact my daughter thought it was a lot easier to understand & use than a VCR. Remember no rewinding & etc with dvd's

I bought this unit yesterday and I'm very disappointed in it's recording capabilities. I don't need the tuner as I have DirecTV and I'm only using to record programs off my tivo. I've been unable to get more than 4 or 5 hours recording on a disc. In the Setup, you can choose between EP recording to be either 6 or 8 hours, and I've tried both. Before recording, I set the Rec Mode feature to toggle to EP mode and in the display I get the correct recording time available, either 6 or 8 hours. After recording (3) 30 minute shows, the disc will show correctly the amount of time remaining. But then after recording a 2+ hour show, the remaining time left on the disc will be less than an hour, sometimes only a couple of minutes. I tried forcing a recording beyond the announced time, but it won't allow it. I've used both -R and +R discs with almost identical results. I'll be returning this unit.

^^
You are really asking for too much from the recorder -- or any DVD recorder for that matter. You really can't put more than 4 hr of recording on a DVD and have something that is watchable. EP mode (6 & 8 hr) on a DVD recorder is a worthless recording mode that was put there for marketing purposes to make it seem comparable to a VCR which could record EP 6hr on T-120 tape and EP 8hr on T-160. The bitrate and resolution is so low on EP mode that the picture is garbage and worse than EP mode on tape.

On another note, in general, the recording time displayed is an estimate based on disk capacity and an assumed average bitrate for a particular recording mode. Depending on the source and the mode, the actual recording time may vary one way or the other. If the source is complex to encode it will require a higher bitrate than this assumed average which means your actual recording time will be less than the estimate.

The Panasonic is a very good unit. If you return it for the reasons you stated, don't bother buying another DVDR. They all do the same or worse.

- kelson h

The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the sweetness of the low price is forgotten . . . life is too short to drink bad wine

I understand what you are saying, and, maybe I am asking too much, but, if a manufacturer such as Panasanic, advertises that one of their units has a recording capabilities of up to 6 or 8 hours, and it turns out that it does not, then people should know. Perhaps this is the standard for most players on the market these days. However, I have had a Zenith DVR413 for over 2 years now that records up to 6 hours in EP mode. The quality is equal to the standard definition quality I get from my tivo unit, and still superior to tape, and that's all I require at this time. I was just looking for another unit that had similar features and quality.

XP and SP are usually right on because the bitrate is high enough. LP is also pretty good. When you get to EP, the bitrate is so low the encoder is straining. Since Panasonic uses VBR -- to allocate more bits to complex scenes and less to passive scenes -- you may not get a full 6hr of recording time if the program source is complex. At any rate, 6hr EP is going to look like crap on anything other than a 9" TV.

- kelson h

The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the sweetness of the low price is forgotten . . . life is too short to drink bad wine

I currently have an LG LST 3410a that is quickly going south...the dvd player still works great but the tuner has trouble keeping channels locked in (and other issues). I have been looking for a new ATSC/QAM box and this Panny DMR-EZ17K seems to have what I need with the bonus of a DVD recorder. Since it has a NTSC/ATSC and QAM then this will work fine as an all-around/HD tuner for a tunerless tv? I understand that recordings will be downconverted but I can get 720p/1080i from an HD channel either OTA or QAM with this unit...right?

"The quickest way to get over your fear of plasma is to actually own *one"- joemama127

I currently have an LG LST 3410a that is quickly going south...the dvd player still works great but the tuner has trouble keeping channels locked in (and other issues). I have been looking for a new ATSC/QAM box and this Panny DMR-EZ17K seems to have what I need with the bonus of a DVD recorder. Since it has a NTSC/ATSC and QAM then this will work fine as an all-around/HD tuner for a tunerless tv? I understand that recordings will be downconverted but I can get 720p/1080i from an HD channel either OTA or QAM with this unit...right?

To answer your question quickly: No. It downrez's the HD to record and on it's outputs. It can't be used as an HD tuner. The 27/47's will upscale via their HDMI output but still not passthru the full HD signal.

I received this Panasonic DVD Recorder yesterday from Circuit City (about $200) and have a few notes:

1. Tuning in digital channels is pretty good, picks up everything in central Iowa (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, WB, and a couple others) and I'm 60 miles from the towers (with an outdoor UHF-only antenna). Same as my Sony HDTV.

2. Channel changes are a couple seconds for digital, about the same as my TV.

3. It does pass DD5.1 to my receiver for tuning in OTA networks and DVDs. Has Dolby Digital and DTS.

4. PROBLEM - It appears to have an issue with 16:9 and progressive. When I set to progressive, it won't display widescreen. My HDTV thinks it is getting a 4:3 signal in 480p and so it squishes the program 16:9 OTA program into a 4:3 box. Does the same thing to anamorphic DVDs. When set to 16:9 480i, everything looks fine. This is over component cables (only way to pass 480p on this unit, no HDMI). I emailed Panasonic, we'll see what they say. In the meantime, I'll reset it and try again. When you set it to 4:3, either 480i or 480p, you can choose to P&S or letterbox. This appears to work OK. Of course, on my 16:9 TV, the 4:3 signal is already pillarboxed.

5. Haven't played with recording yet. Went to get DVD-RAM last night, Walmart didn't have any. Supposedly, only 16:9 recording on DVD-RAM. I have some DVD-RWs, so will try that today and see how it works. From the manual, I'm a little worried that on DVD-R or DVD-RW that it will simply squish 16:9 into 4:3, rather than P&S it. Anyway, we'll find out.

6. Unit is supposed to be able to record and watch a show off the same disk at the same time. Also supposed to be able to record and watch the same show (skip commercials type of thing) when you start watching after about 20-30 seconds. That is what I'll try today with the DVD-RW.

are these problems with the 16:9 because you are using the tuner instead of the going thru the satellite box first?/ Just wondering if you went thru the satellite box would it record whateve the box put out whether 4:3 or widescreen or whatever? I don't want the tuner but just to record what the box puts out...so could your prob be that you are using the tuner instead of the cable box ? Just wondering because I want to pick one of these up, but only to hook to the cable/satellite box and record from it and don't want any of these problems to occur..thanks.t.

To answer your question quickly: No. It downrez's the HD to record and on it's outputs. It can't be used as an HD tuner. The 27/47's will upscale via their HDMI output but still not passthru the full HD signal.

That's a shame...I can understand the recording being downrezzed but why does it do that for regular tv watching? Guess I'll go with a Samsung DTB-H260F and then maybe pair it with a dvd recorder/dvr later.

"The quickest way to get over your fear of plasma is to actually own *one"- joemama127

Question:
I read page 10 on the manual and it says that for DL -r it divides and image and sound may be lost, but DL+R does not divide, but may pause in playback.

So my question is, if I use DL +R disk, then I won't lose ANY image or sound in recording, right? it will just pause in playback..is that what it is saying?

Can anyone clarify this? Anyone recorded on a DL +R yet and can tell me if there is ANY loss of image or sound? thanks..t

I recently purchased the EZ17K and have mixed feelings about it. Not sure if I should return it or not. On the good side, I've NEVER had any audio problems with it (no missing dialog on 5.1 downmixed recordings) and the recording quality is pretty damn good.

On the negative side, the recorder seems to have issues with DVD-R DL (dual layer) discs. I did try a couple of Verbatim DVD-R DL discs and the recorder was incapable of finalizing the discs. Upon trying, I'd get an error message saying "Finalization failed." They won't play back anywhere else now. Panasonic didn't have any good ideas as to why it did that. I managed to extract the video from the disc with my PC, but that was a pain in the butt. But what Panasonic said in the manual is true. There IS a gap where the layer change is. Probably about a three second loss of content.

I did have success with a DVD+R (dual layer) disc, however. It finalized, but took FOREVER to do so. I haven't noticed any gap during playback at the layer change, but i have not extracted the video with my PC to confirm that is the case.

DVD+RW works great, haven't tried DVD-RW or DVD-RAM yet.

One problem I do have with the machine is the "INPUT LEVEL" control in the "BLACK LEVEL CONTROL" in the "VIDEO" section of the "SETUP" menu. The setting only allows for a "Darker" or "Lighter" setting, which I hate. The original signal I want to record looks so much better and this recorder won't let me pass it through unaltered. I've tested it and it records either "darker" or "lighter" than the original. Its either too dark or washed out looking in comparison. In my opinion. But maybe I'm being nitpicky. Anyone know how to disable that setting?

4. PROBLEM - It appears to have an issue with 16:9 and progressive. When I set to progressive, it won't display widescreen. My HDTV thinks it is getting a 4:3 signal in 480p and so it squishes the program 16:9 OTA program into a 4:3 box. Does the same thing to anamorphic DVDs. When set to 16:9 480i, everything looks fine. This is over component cables (only way to pass 480p on this unit, no HDMI). I emailed Panasonic, we'll see what they say. In the meantime, I'll reset it and try again. When you set it to 4:3, either 480i or 480p, you can choose to P&S or letterbox. This appears to work OK. Of course, on my 16:9 TV, the 4:3 signal is already pillarboxed.

Thanks for the info.. late to the party as usual.

I just got the EZ47, and I immediately noticed that when playing back Commercial DVD's and DivX files, it seems the screen is cut off top, bottom, and sides. I have a Component-only WS RPTV, and the player is set to 480p. I've switched it to 480i in mid-play, and it seems to have no effect- stuff is still cut off, like a too-wide picture frame. Edges of subtitles missing- you get the picture.

Anyway, there doesn't seem to be any mention of this anywhere here, or throughout the GoogleVerse. Any insight?

...just picked up an EZ17K and have a connection question that perhaps someone can help me with....

What I would like to do is to use the EZ17 to record content from the DVR.

My cable provider is Verizon FiOS, which means that I have a Motorola QiP6xxx series STB (it's actually a DVR with a 160GB hdd). I connected the DVR to the EZ17 via s-video and the l/r audio connections. The EZ17 was then connected to my display via component out and the l/r audio.

As long as the EZ17 is turned on, the DVR output is passed through to the display. If the EZ17 is turned off.....no display (or sound).

Is there a different way to do this so that I do not need to leave the EZ17 turned on at all times?

-tnx,

Jeff

p.s. related question: is possible to take the l/r audio out and split it so that it goes to two different places? (I think the Motorola DVR sends video out of all outputs simultaneously) That would possibly allow me to still directly connect the DVR to the display as well as have an alternate path from DVR to EZ17 to display. This would allow me to still watch high-def.

If your tv has multiple inputs, you should probably consider rewiring your setup so that the dvr goes to one input of the tv and the ez17 goes to another input on the tv. Then you can select which to view (whichever one is active, as well) more readily. Hopefully the dvr has multiple outputs using different connections? (hdmi, component, s-video, composite, etc) So, if the dvr is connected to the tv using hdmi or component, then you can also connect to the ez17 using the available s-video or composite, for example.

So most of the time you can monitor your tv from the direct feed from the dvr. The ez17 can be on or off, and it won't make a difference. Then if you want to record something on the ez17, you can turn it on, and it will have its own independent connection to the dvr. If you want to view what is going on with the ez17 while it is on, then you simply select the other input on your tv (whichever one the ez17 is connected).

EDIT: Yes, you will probably need to split the audio from the dvr. It should work fine...but maybe you can get lucky and not have to do this if the dvr has a digital audio output (hdmi or spdif)? Then you can use that to connect to the tv or stereo amp (if it supports it).

Hope this made sense.

Margot Robbie is THE most exquisite human creature on the face of the planet, in this moment in time.

...beginning to track down a problem recording HD content from the Verizon DVR to the EZ17.....

I have been successfully recording material from the DVR to the EZ17 for several weeks now. To date, all recordings on the DVR have been SD broadcasts. The DVR is connected to the EZ17 via S-video and the EZ17 is connected to the dispaly via component.

Today, I wanted to record a saved HD broadcast, however when the HD material is viewed I see some sort of vertical alignment problem. The bottom couple of lines are displayed at the top of the screen....then there is a thin black bar beneath those couple of lines....then the bulk of the picture itself.

(I should note that for regular viewing, the DVR is connected to the display via HDMI. When viewing recorded HD material, it is displayed correctly)

Please bear with me on this one, it may get a little long/complicated. I had posted this "workaround" for the chronic "missing timer programs" on another thread, but I believe it should have been in this one, since it specifically relates to the EZ-17. Here goes.

If you use WEEKLY timer schedules this pertains to you.
I will use an example to explain what circumstances will leed to a "failed" timer recording.

Lets say you have set up a timer recording for WEEKLY monday 7-9pm SP mode, also WEEKLY tuesday 7-9pm SP mode, and finally WEEKLY wed. 7-9pm SP mode(note times, channels, and disc type do not effect the outcome, speeds do indirectly if the disc gets mostly filled up, with insifficent time to record the next event).

You put in a blank disc sometime before mondays event, and power machine off. Monday's event will record just fine. NOW is the important part, if you change the disc(since it filled up after monday's event) BEFORE midnight monday, tuesday's event(and every event after that) will NOT record. UNLESS you power up/down the DVDR sometime tuesday(before the tuesday's event). Now if you were to have replaced the full disc anytime tuesday(before the event), tuesday's event would also record just fine. Also note if you power up the machine DURING tuesdays failed event(that is you notice it is not recording) and turn it on, and then power it off, it will start recording from the point AFTER you turn the DVDR off.

This "bug" only seems to be effected by WEEKLY sceduled events, since they do not "drop" of the list in the schedule. The machine keeps looking at monday's event until after midnight, that's why you must turn on/off the unit sometime tuesday. I think it somehow resets things. Just speculating?

I personally use WEEKLY events ALL the time(to save entering the event back in the schedule) I have about 9 shows that are on once a week, every week, so this "bug" effects me BIG time. I was missing events ALL the time before figuring out what was happening. NO previous Panny's that I have had, have this "bug" including ES-10, ES-25, and ES-30. Only this EZ series DVDR.

Note this "bug" also only happens if after say monday's event, the disc does not have enough space on it to record tuesday's event. If you are in the habbit of turning your machine on(for whatever reason) before the next event, you probably have not noticed this "bug". As for me I almost always fill up each disc with each seperate event, and was in the habbit of swapping out the disc right after the event is over, and never turn the machine back on, until after the next event, I always ran into this bug. You see I only record with this unit, and play back on my Sony up converting dvd player.

I hope I've explained this problem well enough to save someone else missed timer recordings. Since implamenting powering up machine EVERY morning, then turning right off, I have yet to miss a event. Note MANY calls to Panny to correct this "bug" with a firmware patch, have fallen on DEAF ears!!!
They dont even admit anyone is even having problems with missed timer events! I guess the don't read forums like this one.....

Note one more work around, you can also just unplug/replug the DVDR from the wall tuesday(in example) and that will reset things. I personally think it is easier to just power up/down the unit. I've toyed with the idea of putting the DVDR on a wall timer to interupt the power for 1 min. every morning, but have not done this yet.

On another note, I personally think it sucks, that this Panny has to be OFF to start a scheduled event. What a step BACKWARDS for Panasonic. Note if anyone else has figured out workarounds for this bug, or other scenerios in which this unit failed to record, please post those events.

jjeff - Just following you to this thread. I have been thinking about my experiences with this "bug" and while I think the same basic thing happens to me occasionally, I think my EZ17 may be acting a little differently.

Twice during the Summer, it failed to record Flash Gordon on Friday night. This would have been the last recording on the disc for the week, filling the disc, and I had not changed the disc since Sunday, for the week, and all previous scheduled recordings worked. I too thought it may have had something to do with copy protection, however, I was able to record those missed episodes early the next week, earlier on the disc for that week, and it recorded. Partly b/c of that I lost interest and stopped recording FG.

When the Fall season started, it once again missed a repeat airing of K-Ville on Fox, Friday night, same time slot that would have been the final recording, filling that disc for the week. Again, I had not changed discs since Sunday and all other previous recordings for that week recorded as scheduled. I thought, could there possibly be something with that time slot?

The last time this happened to me was Halloween week. I decided to take advantage of the lineup on TCM and interrupted my normal weekly scheduled recording by adding some one time scheduled recordings to the timer. This time, it missed my weekly scheculed recording of Reaper on The CW, but this time on a fresh disc. Still not seeing the pattern, I assumed it may have been a bad disc as maybe ever 1 out of 100 of my Sony DVD-Rs are spit out by my Samsungs for no obvious reason.

The only reason I am wondering if we are both observing the same "bug" is that I have gotten the anomoly you described quite a few times when changing the disc immediately after a schedule recording occured. I don't recall it always happening but sometimes the last scheduled (weekly) recording is moved to the end of the list and still shows as if it needs to record it although it has already passed as you described. I haven't paid close attention, but I seem to remember powering it off and back on clearing that problem right then. At any rate, this has happened many times w/o my missing the next nights "Weekly" scheduled recording. I confirmed that, as mentioned, when this occured last Wednesday night, while I don't recall if cycling the power cleared the listing, it did not prevent my newly added Thursday night "Weekly" scheduled recording from recording nor my Saturday "Weekly" from filling the disc in FR mode.

One other interesting thing I have noticed sometimes, is that while I intend to fit 4 hour long weekly scheduled recordings on a single disc in LP, it will sometimes only say "OK" by the first 3 and not the 4th; even if I have it set to FR mode. I haven't figured that out yet and have been scared to chance the 4th recording just in case it "thinks" there is not enough room. It should FR mode the 4th recording to something just slightly less than LP mode as I set my recordings for an extra 5 minutes ( 3 before - 2 after the recording) and the unit otherwise consistently shows 46 min left in LP mode after the first 3 recordings.

Anyway, thanks for your sharing your experiences with the "bug". I will try to pay more attention to mine when it does this in the future. I would be curious if anyone else has unknowingly experienced any timer recording anomolies.

On another note, I personally think it sucks, that this Panny has to be OFF to start a scheduled event. What a step BACKWARDS for Panasonic. Note if anyone else has figured out workarounds for this bug, or other scenerios in which this unit failed to record, please post those events.

I have seen others complain about this. With the EZ-17 and RAM you are supposed to be able to watch one recording while the unit is recording another program. Does this mean that if you are watching a title recorded on the disk, say 5-10 minutes before the start of another recording event, that the EZ17 will not start the scheduled recording?

- kelson h

The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the sweetness of the low price is forgotten . . . life is too short to drink bad wine

I don't think it will start a new event while you have it on and playing something else (as it certainly won't start a scheduled recording even if it is "on" and just sitting there doing nothing). The only real question left is, will it put some sort of message on the screen when it gets close to the timed event to remind you that a scheduled recording is coming up and that you should shut off your recorder.

Margot Robbie is THE most exquisite human creature on the face of the planet, in this moment in time.

I'm sorry I dont really use RAM discs that much, I just used one of several of my "freebie's" that came with my previous Panny's. They cheaped out on the EZ series, and don't include them anymore!(friendly jab). You see when I called Panasonic about there bug, the first thing they said is "are you using Panasonic discs?, you'd probably not have the problem if you used Panasonic discs" What crap!, I never use Panny discs, not that I have a problem with them, I just get better deals on spindles of other "name brand" discs. So that's the only time I used RAM discs, and yes, the bug still happened with the Panny discs. I know on previous Panny's if I were playing a recordable disc when a timer recording was coming up, the unit would display something on the screen warning me it was going to start recording a event a few min. before the event. Good question though, I wonder if this Panny warns you to turn off the machine to start the event.

On HVG's point I hope everyone else is not as confused about my post, as I was reading yours. Sorry I know when a person knows something well themselves, it's hard to convay your point to others, especially with technical things in writing. Let me try and give you a brief test to show you the bug first hand. It happens all the time.

1. program timer for 2 weekly events. One for say tuesday 5-6pm , then the next day for say wedensday 5-6pm. Use the XP mode to fill up the disc. Insert a empty -rw disc(or whatever you want, I'd chose rw so you dont waste the disc)
2. Turn off the machine sometime before the first event.
3. Sometime after the first event finished recording, BUT before midnight, reformat the disc so it has room for the next event, and turn off the machine.
4. Now this is the most important part. Do NOT turn the machine back on before the next event. I know this might be hard to do, espically if you want to use the machine to play a disc or whatever, but do NOT turn it back on. It will ruin the test.

You should notice if you are by the machine when the 2nd recording is supposed to start, it will not start. In fact as I have noted, it will not record any other events that are further down your list either. If you are by the maching and notice it is not recording, try this. Turn the power on to the DVDR. It will power up as normal. After it has finished powering up, simply power it off. If this is during the failed event time, the second you turn it off, it will start the recording!
It's what I call a "bug" and I cant believe Panasonic hasnt fixed it yet.

P.S. HVG, I reread your post before submiting this reply and have another point for you. On the 4 1hr events, with the last one being in FR, I have never seen it give a ! after the forth event. It should be no problem recording that forth event in FR. As you said it should be in say fr4.3 as I would say. I will experiment with this, and let you know.

But back to the test, I cant stress enough, if you turn the machine on, or even power cycle it the day of the 2nd event, the test will fail, and the 2nd event will record.

I just noticed this behavior on my ez-17, as well. A recurring program is set for M-F, and the early morning instance went off fine, early today. When I got home today, I was sure to read the display before touching it (I have the display set to dim, instead of auto, so I can get some sort of status on it w/o even turning it on). I noticed the little red clock symbol was no longer enabled. I imagine if I had just let it sit until the next program time arrived, it would miss the recording. So I turned it on and then turned it off (waiting for it to catch up with each command, of course). Sure enough, the red clock reappeared. So I am confident it will make tomorrow's recording, as scheduled.

So I guess this means this thing is cursed with not being fully self-automated beyond 1 scheduled recording?! That's kind of a pisser. It doesn't really affect my own use patterns (I'll be around to power cycle it every day if need be), but I can imagine this peculiarity being a real pain for somebody else who simply expects reliable vcr scheduling performance w/o having to babysit the thing.

Luckily, I paid $150 for this thing. Strangely, the current price for this model has gone back to $199 since then. I would not recommend this model at $199. Such a basic thing should damn well be ironed out at $199. Panasonic- Get on it! You're embarrassing yourself.

Margot Robbie is THE most exquisite human creature on the face of the planet, in this moment in time.

You might do a search for ES20 bugs as several people were having scheduled recurring program glitches with that model when it came out. These may be the same or similar to what is currently happening with the EZ17. Perhaps reviewing these older threads will provide some help in giving workarounds.

I have both an ES20 & EZ17. I too had some problems with the ES20 when experimenting & trying to duplicate other's problems. I don't recall if I could duplicate all the problems though. But there were problems back then too. If the new recorders are still having problems doing any kind of a timer recording, them shame on Panasonic.

For my own use, I do not normally record the same program on a repeating basis. I frequently do multiple separate scheduled timer recordings, with the last one typically set to FR mode, and to date both machines have not missed a recording.

Just a quick(I guess very few of my posts are quick, but I'll try and be brief), update. I was intregied by Kelson's question about watching a RAM disc, when a scheduled timer event was going to start. So I did a test. I programed a event, then watched something that was on a RAM disc, it had more than enough open room for that next event. On the EZ17 the start time of that event came and went, with no warning to turn it off or anything!!! Just kept playing the RAM disc, NO recording. THAT STINKS. No warning?? come on Panny fix these bugs. Oh one more thing, and I was sure I would know the outcome of this next test, but I wanted to see it anyway. Still during the time that the previous event should have been recording, I stopped the current playing RAM disc. Still no record(kinda thought much), but again just as I thought, the second that I powered down the unit, walla, it started to record the event! Am I a mind reader or what!

So in the mood for more testing, I tired the exact thing in my es-25 panny. On this unit there was also no warning about a comming event, but 1 min. before the event, the playing stoped, the maching went to the correct channel of the event, the machine went to Pause record mode, and at the scheduled time it started recording. While it was recording I was indeed able to go back to Direct Navigator and continue watching my test program. Now that's acceptable. The more I play around with this EZ-17, the more bugs we find!

I'm also in the middle of testing HVG's thought, that maby just turning off/back on/off the unit right after swapping out the disc, the day of the first event, will enable the recorder to record the next event. I'm not too confident though, since after doing that, if I then went back into the schedule list, the date is still listed to the right of the last weekly event that was recorded, and there is a ! next to the next event at the top of the list. And as you know, if I have a blank disc loaded it should not be a ! but rather the date of that next weekly event.

I will let you know the results of that test sometime after 2pm today, when it (should) record that next event. Otherwise it is back to power cycling the unit every morning!

As much as I knock this unit, and all it's bugs, someone else might just say to dump this unit and go back to the es-25. As good as that sounds, I really like the PQ of this unit recording on HD OTA channels, I love the WS, and think I'll learn how to live with it's bugs, but I do hope Panasonic is listening....